A flange is a ring-like structure, or a collar, that is attached to a pipe for the purposes of providing support when pipes are connected, by welding or by other means, or for other purpose as the pipes are installed on locations.
Currently in the field, different size flanges require different fixtures to set up for pipe-flange welding. Some specially designed Flange Mounting Plate fits a number of flange sizes and pipe sizes, but the range is relatively small. Consequently, several Flange Mounting Plates of different sizes are required to cover most of the commonly used flanges.
There are also another type of commonly found Flange Clamping Plate that requires as many as five (5) sizes to make it useful across the full spectrum of the common flange size that ranges from 4 to 24 holes. As such, there is a high level of unwieldiness at job sites performing flange/pipe welding task, due to the limited capacity and flexibility of the tool or fixture for such purpose.
Present invention provides a universal fixture that fits a much broader range of flange/pipe sizes, so that the welding to be performed at a job site is made easier due to the flexibility of the fixture introduced herein.
Additionally, some Flange Mounting Plate currently used in the field caused some unnecessary end play between the mounting studs and the screw holes of the flange, due to the off-alignment of studs on account of the weight of the flange at time of working. The present invention solves the end play issue by aligning the centers of the flange to the center of the pipe, relying on the center hole of the OH plate.